Thank you, Michelle.
Our most recent labour market information study has concluded that our electricity sector will have to recruit almost 45,000 new workers, which is about half of the current workforce, by 2016. That's just over three years from now. We do not want to contemplate the impact of not having enough qualified staff to manage this essential industry. It's a destiny issue for us. The trades play a critical role in the makeup of the electricity workforce. Combined with engineering staff, these two groups represent almost half of the workforce.
Those of us in the sector understand the importance of increasing the appeal of apprenticeship programs to our Canadian youth. Our industry has a strong history of supporting licensing and certifications and building pathways for apprentices. We believe it is absolutely necessary to improve the transition from post-secondary training to the workplace.
As an employer, I have already seen how partnering with local education institutions to develop apprenticeship programs can be successful and how necessary it is for employers to be innovative in order to ensure workforce sustainability. In 2005, Hydro Ottawa looked around the province and saw very few new trained trades workers in the workforce. They were simply not there, so we invented our own apprenticeship program in-house. We started training, recognizing that it takes four years to train a qualified line maintainer, for example, and probably two years beyond that to be fully qualified. We had to start training well in advance of the wave of retirements. That was a very successful program, and it's now in its eighth year.
I talked about institutions. Recently we've gone into a partnership with Algonquin College. They have created a lines program, a hugely successful one. They've had to double their enrolment in the last year, just after the first year of training. We participate in the field training with Algonquin professors, which has been a very successful win-win circumstance for both the utility and the institution.
While we also recognize that registrations for apprenticeships are going up in some occupations, which is great news—they often do when we see the economy fluctuating—we still battle the perception that the trades do not offer a viable and well-respected career choice. Hopefully, that will change in the future.
I'll turn it over to John.